When the parade passes by...

We drove 180 miles to Oxford this early morning for the annual St John's Day Celebration at The Masonic Home for Children. My alarm clock rang at 4.45am and we left the house at 5.30am to pick my father-in-law. Since I had volunteered to drive, I'm pretty glad we all reached Oxford in one piece since I only had 1.5 hours of sleep the night before. (Hurrah for Cruise Control)

Oxford is a neat little town of 6000 people.
We arrived there in plenty of time to catch the parade. I was gleefully excited when the band started playing and all the miniature trains, trucks and jeeps paraded down the streets of Oxford. It was fun and I felt like a little child again. The Hillbillies were funny and the remodeled vehicles were pretty ingenious. Wished we had brought Cooper and Wrenn with us. But it wouldn't have been easy for a 1 year old and a 3 year old to sit in the car for a total of 6+ hours driving time to and fro.
We had BBQ pork (North Carolina style) for lunch. (Well, actually I had chicken instead) and caught up with other family members at the festival. Then, we drove out to the countryside to visit more family. And I saw a fig tree for the first time. And lots of tobacco fields.

We drove back to Charlotte in the late afternoon. I surprised myself for being able to stay alert on the road eventhough part of me felt like a zombie. But I was even more proud of myself for driving all that distance and not getting any panic attacks. Perhaps the Zoloft is indeed working. Or perhaps I need to change jobs. Or maybe it is all just in my crazy little mind.